Government Seeks New Partner For VALCO

Barley two weeks after buying the remaining 10 percent shares of ALCOA in Volta Aluminum Company Limited (VALCO), government is searching for a new strategic investor to partner it in running the aluminum smelter.

So far, two foreign companies have expressed interest in owning shares in the company, which has seen a larger part of its plant shut down due to inadequate power supply.

Though he was tightlipped about the potential companies seeking to own strategic shares in the company, Dr. Anthony Akoto-Osei, Minister of State at the Ministry Finance and Economic Planning, who disclosed this to some journalists in Accra noted that part of VALCO's shares will be off-loaded to other investing partners in future.

'Government is confident in the private sector and thus will like to see private participation in the aluminum smelter'.

He said the companies that have expressed interest in the operations of VALCO are into bauxite refinery and will help government to actualize its concept of an integrated aluminum industry in which the country's bauxite will be mined, refined and processed to near-end or end products here in Ghana.

Formerly operated by the Ghana government and US-based Kaiser ALCOA, VALCO was recently acquired by government when it purchased ALCOA's 10 percent stake in the company for $2 million, thus making it the sole shareholder in the company.

Government's concept of an integrated aluminum industry has been highly welcomed by industrialists since bauxite at the Awaso Bauxite Mine is being extracted, processed and shipped to UK for the British Aluminium Company (BACO) to smelter it.

The Ghana integrated aluminium industry is envisaged to comprise the mining of the bauxite deposits at Hyinahin in the Ashanti Region and Kibi, in the Eastern Region.

Last year, low water levels in the Volta Dam forced the 200,000 tonne/year VALCO smelter to be shut down indefinitely, leading to the retrenchment of about 700 workers while about 200 people were retained to maintain the plant's operations on a low level.

When it operates at a full capacity, it requires 20,000 megawatts electricity to produce 200,000 metric tonnes of aluminum ingots annually, from which the company injects some $0.5 billion into the Ghanaian economy.

By Charles Nixon Yeboah